Obama admin. seeks to resume training of controversial Indonesian military unit

The administration of President Obama hopes to resume U.S. training of an elite Indonesian military unit whose members have been convicted of gross human rights abuses in East Timor and elsewhere in the sprawling archipelago. The leadership of Indonesia's controversial special forces division - the Komando Pasukan Khusus, or Kopassus - has been in Washington to discuss the proposal this week. Its meetings here come ahead of President Obama's state visit to Indonesia later this month. The trip will launch "The U.S.-Indonesia Comprehensive Partnership" - a bilateral strategy to enhance security and economic cooperation between the two countries. "In the next few months, the U.S. State Department will conduct a review of the ban [indicating] that military-to-military relations will be restored ... to allow Kopassus officers to be trained in the United States," former Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono told the Jakarta Post on Wednesday. Under the so-called Leahy law, first approved in 1997, Washington is banned from providing training or other kinds of assistance to any foreign military unit if there is "credible evidence" that it has committed "gross violations of human rights." The ban can be waived if the secretary of state certifies that the relevant foreign government is "taking effective measures" to bring to justice responsible members of the unit.